The Transformation of Greek Amulets in Roman Imperial Times

The era of the Roman Empire was distinguished by an explosion of images and texts in a variety of media--metal, papyrus, mosaic, gemstone--all designed to protect, heal, or grant some abstract benefit to the persons who wore them on their bodies or placed them in their homes. In the past scholars have explained this proliferation of readily identifiable amulets by a sudden need for magic or by a precipitous rise in superstition or anxiety in this period, connected, perhaps, with the internal breakdown of Greek rationalism or the migration of superstitious peoples from the East.